A Change of Pace
by anacarols
Summary: Niall is bored. He lives in the same small town he was born and nothing new ever happens. Lena is happy about leaving the bad memories in London and moving to a place where she can forget about what happened to her. When they meet in a Halloween party none of them were too excited about attending, they don't have any idea of how important they're going to become to each other.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

He couldn't get there. That was the whole point. He just couldn't. It was not that he didn't want to. God, he wanted to so badly. So. So. So. But what was he supposed to do once he got there? He would just look her in the eye and say everything he could hardly admit to himself?

He thought it would take a lot more alcohol for him to even consider talking to her after all that happened. But there he was. And there she was. Standing just a few steps away and acting like she hadn't seen him (no, there was no way she was over him to the point she wouldn't notice him), looking so pretty in that black dress, the fabric adjusting to her body in all the right places, her long brown hair spreading across her back as she threw her head back while laughing. She always did that. It always made him smile.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Jesus, where are you going dressing like that?" Niall heard his mom shouting and stopped, his hand on the doorknob. He turned around, finding that exact same scene from every saturday at his house ever: his mom, his dad, his little sister and his older brother were sitting on the big couch, and they were watching some movie his brother downloaded. Apparently, he was shaping in some sort of computer genius. Today, it was Fast & Furious 4.

"It's a Halloween party, mom" Niall explained, pointing to the hat he was wearing. "See? I'm a pirate"

"Real pirates don't wear hats like that" his brother, Joe, pointed out. Niall shrugged.

"Party pirates wear"

"You should have gone for something more… You" oh God, he wanted to open the door and go without even finishing that conversation. It was for things like that he never watched any movie with them.

"Well, let's hope you never have the same problem. I'm out"

"Don't be late!" his mom shouted.

"Get back in one piece!" his dad shouted right after, and he heard Joe say "Like I would wear a costume at all". Kim, his little sister, just opened a wide smile, full of missing teeth, at him before he left. Kim was the best.

His older brother didn't really had fun. At least, Niall didn't see any fun in what he used to do with his free time. Joe decided he wanted to go to the nearest college and always made an effort to sleep at home, sometimes it felt like he was still in high school. When he wasn't at college, he was at his computer talking about college stuff. Not even the fun college stuff, but about what he was studying. Joe made college look like it was horribly boring.

Niall put his earphones on and started the same walk he did everyday. He stopped when he got to a house that looked just like his. All the houses in that neighborhood looked exact the same. It was the first thing you'd have to to do if you wanted to fit - creativity wasn't really seen as something to be encouraged around here.

Usually, he would have to knock on the door or hit the doorbell, but a tall woman with long dark hair opened the door before he did anything.

"Hey, sweetie! Harry will be here in just a minute!" Harry's mom always said the same thing. Niall smiled in response and rested his back against the wall as soon as she entered the house and left the door open.

He wasn't so sure it was a good idea to actually go to the damn Halloween party. It was really nothing new, it was just the same party Tina threw every year. It was just that this was her last year at school, and everyone was making so big of a deal about that party, that Harry kind of convinced him that they would have the time of their lives.

Highly unlikable, Niall thought. He was starting to think Joe was right, that costume wasn't so right for him.

"Yo-ho!" he was brought back to reality by Harry shouting, smiling so big it was possible to see his dimples. Harry was tall for his age, hair big and really curly, kind of looked like a child that had turned into a giant. In a good way, if it had any.

He was dressed in a suit. He adjusted his hair that was pushed back and said he was James Bond.

"007, man. Chicks love that"

"Yeah, you would know"

Tina's house, almost like everything, was just some minutes away. They got there and it was already packed, all that party atmosphere going on. Loud, bad music, cups empty thrown around the floor, people laughing, talking and singing. Horrible costumes. Harry was all smiles.

"Gonna get something to drink" Niall said, almost screaming so that Harry could hear him over the music (was that Britney Spears?), but his friend had already found some girl and wasn't really paying attention.

Niall knew this house. Tina's mom was his mom's best friend for a long time and, being the middle child, Niall was stuck with the curse. You know, the middle child curse. The "You get the most boring activities because you don't really fit anywhere" curse. His mom decided he fit going for tea with her over at Tina's. Not that he minded all that much. She was never really at home and her mom always made the best cookies he had ever tried.

So, as soon as he was alone again, he got the right corridor, turned left and was at the kitchen. It was a really big kitchen, but the usual stuff that sits over the tables was replaced with bottles of alcohol. Lots of it. Everywhere.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. I can't do more shots, man. Not even one more. Seriously." this guy was talking, and everyone around him was laughing, none of them looked like they could do anymore shots, if Niall could be honest.

He opened the refrigerator and pulled a beer from there, drinking right out of the bottle as he crossed his arms and rested against the cupboard.

If he knew back then that this was the moment he would see her for the first time, then maybe he wouldn't have gotten a beer. He would want to be completely aware of everything, remember every little detail.

"I just need a minute"

"Are you for real? Like, really, Tina… You really saw it, as soon as you opened that door. You can't just go on and pretend that…"

"I know what I saw, Lena! Just let me… Ugh, just let me get my shit together, okay?"

Niall knew everyone. He had never seen Lena. He was sure of it. Because, one, he really knew everyone around here.

And, two, he would never ever forget seeing her.

* * *

Everything was going to be awesome. And then everything was really anything but awesome.

Lena crossed her arms and resisted the urge of tiding her hair into a bun. It was so hot, she just wanted to lay in bed and forget everything. But of course she couldn't, her first day had to be helping Tina organize her oh-so-famous Halloween Party. Lena just felt like they were just keeping tradition. But a kind of wrong tradition, because they weren't even american. There was nothing so great about this party, it was just a regular party. Except she was dressed as Pocahontas, that was not so regular.

Maybe it was because everyone already knew all the bedrooms. Maybe it was about in how many bedrooms of the house you could make out. The stakes were probably really high tonight. And Tina's boyfriend (ex-boyfriend?) was helding his number one really high, no one can beat "getting caught in your girlfriend's parents bed cheating on her". That was a whole new level.

But Lena knew that, no matter how annoying things could be getting, they were still better than her old life. It was funny to say it like that - old life. She was only seventeen, how could she already have a new life to substitute an old one? The thing was, she had.

And to be completely honest, it felt kind of fun to be in a party. To drink and just listen to the really bad music everyone was dancing in the living room and the backyard. It felt good to feel normal.

"Ugh" Tina sat on the balcony, her bright pink and big dress almost making it possible for her to hide in it, and gave a really hard look to a small group of people that kept saying they couldn't drink anymore and drank anyway. They all looked at her without saying anything, then one short girl that Lena could swear was dressed as an Oompa Loompa gave her a tiny smile, grabbed a bottle and made everyone leave the kitchen. "This is awful. Honestly. This is so awful, I just want to go back in time."

"So that you'd never met him?" Lena asked, and Tina laughed.

"No. So that I entered the bedroom instead of leaving right away" she looked down at her lap and started messing with one of the flowers that decorated her skirt. "And then I would punch his face so hard, his nose would come out of his eyes."

"That sounds painful." a third voice came over and both of the girls looked scared. Lena thought all the drunks had left.

"Give me that, Horan" she heard Tina say, and a blonde guy dressed in pirates clothes showed up and gave his half empty beer to Tina.

His hair was messy under his black and red hat, and his eyes were blue. He was tall and she could see some muscles underneath his white t-shirt. His voice was… Soft. And fun. He sounded like fun and good things. He had a really great smile.

When Tina drank some of the beer, he turned to look at Lena. She tried to smile, but wasn't really sure what came out. She hoped it wasn't as bad as it had been in her head. She wasn't used to meet people, and she wasn't used to meet cute boys.

"Hey" he said, giving her a big smile.

"Hey! Nice meeting you" she answered and, God, she shook his hands. Was she suddenly in a job interview? Couldn't she acted normal? It was like she was meeting the Queen.

And "Nice meeting you" was as far as she could possibly thinking with meeting new people. That's it, she had done it all.

The was the thing. She had no problem meeting new people if it meant that you could just get up and go away as soon as it started to feel awkward. But that wasn't life, right? She had to try. But apparently she wouldn't have to do that right now. God save the princess.

"Niall, this is Lena. She is a friend of mine. She's actually your age, you guys are probably going to have some classes together." Tina said, looking at them just briefly and going back to her bottle of beer.

"Oh, you starting in our school?" Lena shook her head.

"Kind of really out of date, but yes, I am" she expected him to ask why she was doing this, moving to a different town and starting in a new school at such a random time. But he never did that. He just smiled when she answered him, and then said:

"I'm glad you're here"

* * *

Cookies. He found the cookies and offered some to Tina and Lena, even though it should probably be the other way around.

Tina grabbed four and put one in her mouth in just one bite.

"I'm going to talk to him" she said, before finishing her cookie, chocolate tips flying around and making Lena laugh out loud.

"Tina, you're messing up your reputation"

"Oh, for the love of God, everyone is so wasted, they don't even know whose party this is anymore"

"You know, you could just have his head on a spike. Treason. Treason to royalty" Lena said. "But I think the high school version of that would be you taking a pic of him naked and put it on the journal"

"The hello kitty tattoo situation" Tina said, her hands going in opposite directions as she was imagining reading the headlines.

"Really?" Lena asked making her friend laugh out loud for the first time since the incident.

Niall ate his second cookie and thought about Tina's ex-boyfriend. He was named Guy. In Niall's opinion, someone named Guy would obviously turn out to be a idiot because, c'mon, who wants to have that kind of name? Guy was in his soccer team, they talked sometimes, but Niall never had much interest in talking basically about cars.

"I can't believe we even got matching costumes. Oh, Jesus. This just gets worse by the second" Tina finished her second bottle of beer so fast, Lena turned to look at Niall like she was checking if he could see how bad this was turning out.

Honestly, Niall felt like he could take her hand and get them both out of there at any minute. She looked and talked like she was this really great thing that had nothing to do with everyone that he was used to. He wanted to find out more about her and listen to answers to his questions no one had been able to give yet.

"We could help you" he started, still looking at Lena, watching her go from scared to confused.

"And how would you exactly do that, Niall?" Tina asked, putting the beer down and looking at the boy across from her. He shrugged.

"He's in the team, right? Maybe I could talk to the boys and we could give him a bad time. I mean, nothing serious, but just enough that he would know-"

"No, I'm the one giving him a bad time" Tina said before Niall could get somewhere. All of a sudden, she jumped from the balcony and was on her high heels looking like she was ready to kick some ass. Niall mentally thanked he never messed with her.

"You shouldn't" Lena was faster than him, but Tina wasn't going to hear anything from her as well.

"But I have to-" she started walking as she was talking, her dress flying behind her as she left the kitchen, not even bothering finishing her sentence.

"Oh, fucking hell" Lena sighed, and started running after her friend. Niall watched as she left, and only after a couple of seconds he realized it wouldn't be so easy to find her again, so he ran after her.

Tina was at the bottom of the stairs, talking to Lena with her hands high and making big gestures. None of them tried to make him leave when he stopped next to them.

"You do have to call it off, but you don't have to do that face to face!" Lena was almost screaming."I mean, they say it's the grown up thing to do but you're not an adult and he's an asshole"

"I thought all adults were assholes"

"Shut up, Horan" Tina adjusted her dress and Lena sighed when she realized Tina wasn't going to hear what she was saying. She was going to talk to the guy. The Guy.

"Guy. For the love of God, no good comes from guys who are named Guy" Tina gave him another look that could freeze hell, but it didn't affect him because Lena was working on the crown Tina was wearing.

"Okay, I think you're good to go. Are you sure?" Lena asked, her fingers still messing a bit with the crown, but her eyes were on Tina's.

"Well, not too sure, I'm counting on anger here" Lena laughed a bit, Niall felt like he would love to see a bigger and genuine version of that. Without saying anything more, Tina grabbed the fabric of her dress and started going up the stairs, making sure she wouldn't trip over any step.

"I can't believe she is actually doing this" Lena put her hands over her face. Niall had a beer on his hand, he grabbed one from the fridge before running after Lena.

"I always thought the Royal Family was just fucked up, really" she gave him a very similar look from Tina's, but didn't say anything. Instead, she reached to the beer in his hand and drank it.

Lena had long brown hair, eyes of the same color and her costume was really simple, just the dress that looked like the one from Pocahontas and that blue necklace. She even had the red tattoo on her arm.

Her eyes were closed and she rested her back on the yellow wall behind them. She put down the beer, and they stood there quietly, side by side, listening to some song Niall was almost sure it was from Beyoncé.

"I swear to God, I'm just waiting to hear screams so loud someone is going to stop the music and Tina will kick Guy and he's going to roll down the stairs and it's going to be just the perfect cliffhanger from a bad tv show"

"Royal Romance" he said, taking the beer from her hand and drinking it too. She laughed and opened her eyes, first seeing the bootle of beer hanging from his hand, really close to his mouth, then her eyes locked on his.

"Royal Romance, I would so watch that on Netflix" she said, her eyes traveling from his eyes to his mouth, then back to his eyes. He couldn't help but smile. "And if you ask me, this is the season finale for season one"

Seriously, where did this girl came from? Whenever he said something like that, everyone would look at him like he was a complete weirdo, and it made him feel like he really was. But there was this girl just as weird as him, joking along. Beautiful. Stunning. Different.

Unusual.


End file.
